Gibbons’ Global Warming Task Force: Its Not “If,” Its “How.” Really
Gibbons’ energy advisor and chemical engineer, Hatice Gecol, sounds like she doesn’t think the press should be included in any global warming task force meetings. Is this all a part of Gibbons’ plan to embarrass Nevada? I’ll let you be the judge. However, I will remind you that one of my conspiracy theories is that Gibbons is on Schwarzenegger’s payroll and is functioning as a mole in California’s scheme to take over Nevada for its measly water supply. Anyway, it seems that Lisa Mascaro’s Las Vegas Sun article on the why Gibbons has not joined the governors of five other western states in launching a plan to limit carbon emissions made Hatice Gecol a little upset and she shared her frustration with some hippie from one of those environmental associations. Bloody longhairs.
This is the text of an email from Gecol to a presumed and unidentified member of an environmental group (emphasis added):
Hello xxxxx,
Thank you for your email. I have copied and pasted an email I sent out to a
staffer of a Democratic leader in Nevada. I thought its important for you
and other citizens to see that we are responsible and serve Nevada in a
responsible way. XXXXX, I am truly sorry that articles like this are put
out with an editorial slant and does not represent the truth. I can assure
you that the Governor cares about the environment and is a big proponent of
clean and renewable energy. If you have any other questions please email me
directly. I will reply to any other concerns you might have. The Governor
and I strongly believe in being accountable to the citizen, so please do
email me back if you have any other questions or concerns and I will tell
you only the truth. I am a professor and my reserach area is renewable
energy and environmental remidiation. I was brought on board by Gov. Gibbons
because of my background in renewables. Please see my email below. Please
read this email I sent out to a democratic staffer and you will understand
that I was not treated fairly on this story and I was misquoted. I am
hoping the LV SUN will do the right thing and retract their error.Hatice Gecol, PhD
Energy/Science Advsior to the Governor
Director, State office of Energy.———–Attached email to an unidentified Democratic staffer———————
“Thanks for the info–I will go through it and will pass it on to the
committee soon. I am in communication with an individual to chair the
committee and he is an air quality expert and has informed me that he has
been collecting a lot of articles on this subject.This article in the lV SUN
is not reflective of what we said. I am very disappointed with Lisa. She
actually said that we will study if global warming is hurting the state.
That is not true. No one in our office said this. In fact, I told her we
are forming a task force to look into HOW global warming is affecting our
state and how we can address it. Very different from what she reported. She
asked me for my personal opinion on this matter and I told her I dont want
to share it with her since I am not on the task force and they need to not
leave anything off or on the table (in other words I did not want to control
them in any way) I want them to be independent and free of any pressures
from any side. I am taking great pains in creating this task force to ensure
they have all sides at the table including academics, business etc..In fact,
I was seriously considering having the press attend the meetings, but no
more.This particular aricle is making me wonder if the crusade for the
environment is real or is it just political in nature? The Governor and I
met the day before he left and he asked me to form this committe because he
wanted to be proactive in this regard. Here is a man trying to do good and
the press makes it negative.One of Governor Swazzneggers advisors contacted us for a meeting for March
15 and did not even mention what they are planning for the NGA. They
contacted us a couple of weeks ago. If they cared about the environment
should they not have discussed this with us? Even Gov. Bill Richardson
explained to the press that they did not contact any other western states.
But again, Lisa did not mention this in her article (especially I brought
this to her attention and gave her the cite for this comment). In fact, once
again she misrepresented by stating that the Governor was “Surprised by the
western Governor’s bold plan”.I am very disapointed in Lisa. However, I will not let people like her to
hurt our plans for a clean energy future.”Hatice
Call me crazy, but I don’t see how saying that “Gibbons’ office said he was surprised by the Western governors’ bold plan…”is a misrepresentation. Gibbons clearly didn’t know, so he must have been surprised when he found out. Gecol expresses dismay that Schwarzenegger’s office didn’t contact them about it. Sounds like they were surprised to me. Gecol also claims that Mascaro misquoted her in regards to her statement as to the purpose of the global warming task force, claiming that she said the task force was created to study how global warming is affecting our environment, not if it is. But why would Mascaro go out of her way to get Gecol’s statement so wrong. After all, she didn’t just write “if” instead of “how,” she used a very specific phrase: “Gibbons’ office said Tuesday that the state is launching a task force that will conduct a sweeping study of global warming, including whether it exists at all in Nevada.”
Anyway, the real issue here is that a member of Gibbons’ cabinet is threatening to exclude the press, the citizens’ representative, because she feels she was not treated fairly by one journalist. Should this be the attitude of a member of our state government and the Governor’s staff? If the Governor and Gecol strongly “believe in being accountable to the citizen,” why would they not include the press, even if they had questions about their coverage? Those should be resolved with the press–not through retaliation–on the public suffers in that scenario. The state government cannot withhold information from the public because they are mad at the press. That’s positively Cheneyesque, and I think most of us can agree that his is not the best way to govern.
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Trackbacks & Pingbacks
[...] I just found out that I was in the Ralston Flashy thing today (Nugget #2 if you must know–but who or what the hell was #1?). That’s cool and all, I think its my second mention by the real journalist, but he makes it sound like I’m trying to shut out the media, not Hatice Gecol. See for yourself: Never let it be said I don’t give bloggers credit when it is due. Check out this interesting bit about the controversial Gibbons energy adviser unearthed by a northern blogger who calls herself Myrna the Minx. It seems she’s so angry at the Las Vegas Sun that she wants to shut out the media. [...]
Comments
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“Cheneyesque.” Maybe some circles have been using this term for ages and I’m just out of the loop (quite probably). If not, you should trademark it now because it sums up quite nicely the deluded, paranoid, and adversarial attitude of the administration towards the press.
Anyone else remember Shelley Duvall’s character in Annie Hall telling Woody that sex with him was a “Kafkaesque” experience? She meant it in a good way.
I actually stole the cheney comparison from someone else. However, I did coin the word cheneyesque
There’s an easy way to resolve such a thing. The reporter should open her notes, including tape recordings, so we can all see/hear for ourselves what was said. It’s entirely possible for that letter written to you to be completely accurate and truthful. It’s also very possible for it to be complete crap. Let us see for ourselves.
This is neither a scene, nor is it an any way an arms race.
Back to the carbon emissions situation for a minute. Gibbons has long been on the dole and at the end of the leash of Nevada mines; everyone knows this.
There is a good portion of nasty emissions coming from Nevada mines and their processing plants. Mercury is just one of the honors being spewed out in to our air.
Gibbons can’t clamp down on carbon emissions or anything like that from coal-fired power plants unless he also kicks the butt of the hands that fed his campaign.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/12/15/news/state/17_02_3212_14_06.txt
Also, I realize that you’ve insulated yourself a bit and can easily come back with how specific you were here. Your complaint about Gibbons shutting out the press is a tad ironic. Hasn’t this blog been hosting all sorts of crazy comments from people wanting to shut Fox out from hosting a debate. Hmm. True, Fox would be hosting candidates - not elected officials. And also true is that the more information anyone has, the better democracy works, n a very basic level. I do, however, get that a major difference in the two cases is party affiliation. Let’s at least wait a week or so before breaking out the second standard.
I read the article and must agree with Dr. Gecol. She is correct if she does not allow the press to participate in the process. I am not sure if I would trust them either. Thanks for posting her email. Its always refreshing to see that our public officials care eneough to reply to our citizens rather than use the press to do their hit jobs for them. Way to go Dr. Gecol. You are our hero. I am stunned that you would spin her email to make it a negative. I can now see how the press misrepresented her thoughts. Also, if you see ht elast line of the original article it si very clear that this so called liberal press made it a point ot highlight her gramatical error in english to embarras her. This is not cool. I will never again believe aword the LV SUn writes. Thanks to you, I know better.
Also, I agree with the earlier post that we need to listen to the tape to find out the truth for ourselves. I will not accept the reporters notes on this matter. I dont think she can be trusted to write down what was said. I am willing to bet that she has no recordings for this interview. How can she? It will hurt her agenda.
As long as ciitzens are serving on the taskforce and they make the report public, I am fine with it. I dont know of anyother taskfore that is open to the press. The very fact that Dr. Gecol was willing to open it to the press was in itself commendable. If the lV Sun massaged her conversation with her to reflect their agenda rather than inform the public, I would like them to have the spine to retratct the complete article. Finally, does any one know if the press has an ethics board that oversee’s them?
In your statements you make it sound that Gibbons being surprised is accurate. Yes, but hats not what LV Sun reported. They implied that Gibbons was surprised by the “BOLD” actions and not thatthey were presenting this to the press. Very different spin, indeed.